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When do infants start sleeping through the night and how does this happen?
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Each child is different. My son started sleeping through the night at about six months. We swaddled him (he slept this way from birth to 14 months), laid him in his bed in his darkened room with soothing music. He has had his moments but usually it is around the times when he is sick or teething. DD was another story and in our situation it was our fault. We helped her make a habit of getting up by feeding her in the middle of the night. But she has never been as good a sleeper as DS. The least stimulation after bedtime the better has been key for us. When we go in to cover them up we don't talk to them, etc. They know that it isn't a time for activity but for sleep.
My youngest is four and a half months old and has been sleeping at least 8 hours straight since 3 weeks old. She sleeps 11-12 hours now with only a brief 15 minutes quick feeding sometime between 4-5am. I've used The Miracle Blanket to swaddle her since she came home at two days old. I've also used the same swaddle blanket on a couple of foster babies with similar success. They can't get out of the swaddle and it keeps their arms from jerking and waking them. She also does not sleep very much during the day, just a few rather short (hour or less) naps during the day. I do not wake her, she just doesn't nap much. I do make sure she is awake by 6pm, though, so she'll definitly be asleep by 8pm for the night. Our evening routine is always the same also so she knows bedtime is coming.
When babies are able to sleep through the night and when they actually do are often very different things. Some infants as young as 3 months old can snooze for six to eight hours at a stretch. Others won't sleep this long until they're 12 months. But most babies (70 percent) do sleep through the night by the time they hit 9 months, according to the National Sleep Foundation.You may have heard that bigger babies and babies who eat solids are better sleepers — but it's not true. Your baby's ability to sleep through the night is related to age, not size or diet.
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Thanks for the hints! My FD is 7 months, and she wakes up several times during the night. We've recently stopped giving her milk bc she is a little overweight and can't possibly be hungry since she gets a hearty evening meal before bed. But we have been giving her water. Other times she just wants her binky. This week she started getting up in the middle of the night thinking it's time to play. I've had to rock and sing her back to sleep for 20 minutes bc otherwise she just laughs and tries to play with me, even though I keep the lights off and don't talk to her so as not to stimulate her.
I can't believe I forgot about swaddling, though! I will try this tonight! She is definitely an arm and leg flinger! Like she's trying to run somewhere! Thanks for the hint!
Yikes! I tried the swaddling two nights in a row now, and I haven't seen an improvement. The first night, I didn't do a very good job initially with the swaddling, and Baby V flung herself out of it and was cold, which I finally figured out by 3:30 am and the 4th time she woke me. I changed her, swaddled her extra tight, massaged her legs and carressed her hair, and she was out for 3 hours until I woke her up in the morning.
But last night, I went straight for the tight swaddle, yadda yadda, and she did sleep for 3 hours straight, but she usually does the first three hours regardless. Then she woke me up every hour and a half, until finally I had had it and tried to let her cry it out. I said firmly "no", bc I knew she didn't need anything. I had offered her water, checked her diaper, she was warm but not too warm, etc, etc.
After some 15 minutes of that not working (she seemed to settle down repeatedly, but then she'd start up again with the screaming:hissy: ), I caved and reswaddled her, gave her her binky AGAIN, and did the whole hair/massage thing until she was asleep. As soon as I got in bed, she started wailing again:hissy: . At this point, I knew she just wanted me there next to her, but this was ridiculous. :arrow: I wasn't picking her up, but apparently standing there with her has also become a crutch to her self-soothing.
So this time I left the room and let her cry it out. In about 20 minutes, she fell asleep on her own, and I caught a half hour nap before I needed to get up. When it was time to wake her, she kept on sleeping as I uncovered her, picked her up, carried her downstairs. I thought to myself, "sure, NOW she sleeps".
I hated hearing her cry, but I think I'm going to have to go with this strategy. Four or five wakings during the night for an almost 8 month old who does not feed at night is excessive, isn't it?
Am I doing the right thing? Anybody?:eek: